Free Republic

Israel's acting prime minister, MK Ehud Olmert, has declared war, not against Hamas or the Islamic Jihad, but against unauthorized Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Olmert, at a meeting Wednesday afternoon with security officials, ordered the IDF to draw up clear plans to prevent the creation of new outposts and to destroy existing ones. Nearly every community in Judea and Samaria started as or engaged in building projects that were unauthorized at some stage. Israel's ambiguous policies with regard to the future of Judea and Samaria have been blamed for this trend, as various government coalition members and heads...

Mofaz Orders Destruction of Three More Communities 11:15 Jan 13, '06 / 13 Tevet 5766 By Ezra HaLevi DM Sha'ul Mofaz has authorized the destruction of three Jewish neighborhoods in the Shomron. There are 7, 380 demolition orders against illegal Arab buildings that remain unexecuted. The threatened communities, called "unauthorized outposts" by the government, are Skully's Farm near Elon Moreh, the Arussi Farm near Har Bracha and Hill 725, near Yitzhar. Mofaz took advantage of the media attention to the alleged uprooting of Arab olive trees to declare that the outposts to be destroyed are close to the sites of...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2005 – When the Kentucky Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 623rd Field Artillery, was activated to deploy to Iraq in November 2004, citizens in the soldier's communities banded together to shower them with support. Ten months later, the communities are still showering their citizen-soldiers with support. People in the rural communities of Glasgow, Tompkinsville and surrounding counties started supporting the soldiers when the unit was in an eight-week training program at Fort Dix, N.J. Soldiers who could afford it had the option to come home for a week during the 2004 Christmas holiday season before leaving for...

I am looking at a possible job in the Allentown area of PA. I need so info on schools, community, crime, cost of living, etc., etc. Forgive the vanity, but this is only my 3rd vanity in over 4 years and I know my fellow freepers are a source of knowledge. If you have any input, please provide. Thanks!

LADY LAKE - Some see it as growth gone wild - a wave of houses and happy faces that has changed this three- county corner of Old Florida forever. But for every critic, there are scores of supporters, especially those who live in The Villages, a retirement community that has replaced yesterday's pastures and pines with 27,000 single-family houses in Lake, Marion and Sumter counties. To many, the development's lifestyle and hundreds of activities are irresistible. ``I spent three months [looking for a home] in eastern and western Florida and didn't see anything like this,'' says Chico Mir, 66, a...

The evasive reaction of many British Muslims to the bombings in London will strike Americans as depressingly familiar. In past decades, explosions of criminal violence in the U.S. were rationalized as the inevitable products of racism and poverty. The solution, Americans were told by their leaders, was more understanding and more government money. Such therapies didn't work here, and they won't work there. The London-based Financial Times provided this bit of clucking context for the four men who killed at least 55 people: "immigrant families ... often carry with them difficult memories of a colonial past that hampers integration." So...

This is where F-16 fighter pilots train for war. The sleek, pointy-nosed "Fighting Falcons" take off and land 150 times a day. They zoom off to the Barry M. Goldwater Range to practice air-to-air combat and drop real bombs on simulated targets. The Sonoran Desert seems like an ideal, out-of-the-way spot for such noisy and dangerous war exercises. And it was - 60 years ago. "We were out in the boonies," says Col. Robin Rand, Luke's commander. "For many years, we didn't have to worry about community relations." Now, they do. The boonies are fast disappearing, and combat training and...

The assassination of the controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh has provoked some uncomfortable debates in Europe. The killer was not dispatched on his mission by sinister al-Qaeda masterminds scheming somewhere from their hideout in Asia. On the contrary, the assassin epitomizes the new European jihadists: a very loosely connected network with little or no organizational links to Osama bin Laden. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) noted in its 2004 annual report that support and recruitment for Islamist terrorism is increasing worldwide. Any illusions that Europe would be spared a mega-terror attack were shattered with the coordinated attacks...

GOP on the Edge The Los Angeles Times notes an interesting trend in political demographics: In this month's election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them "exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas. . . These growing areas, filled largely with younger families fleeing urban centers in search of affordable homes, are providing the GOP a foothold in blue Democratic-leaning states and solidifying the party's control over red Republican-leaning states. Many agree that in these high-growth communities, as in much of the...

<p>MONTEREY - With the federal government poised to begin another round of military base closures, California politicians from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on down are moving into position to argue against shutting any of the state's 62 remaining military installations.</p> <p>To do otherwise would be considered political suicide. Nobody ever got elected by agreeing to move jobs, even low-paying government jobs, out of their community.</p>

Regional Governance is Here "This commission has become a nightmare, beyond the reach of either state government, or Congress, short of repealing the Act altogether. This appointed commission has absolute authority over all land use within the designated counties, with the authority to override both county and state elected officials..." March 1, 2004 By Henry Lamb henry@freedom.org NewsWithViews.com To submit a Letter to the Editor: newswithviews@newswithviews.com There are currently six Regional Commissions in place, or pending final approval, which impact states from New York to California; from Florida to Washington. Few people realize that these regional commissions even exist, or...

DETROIT - A senior U.S. diplomat said on Monday that Israel's refusal to stop building settlements in the West Bank threatened its future as a democratic Jewish state. The warning came in a speech by William Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, at the U.S.-Arab Economic Forum in Detroit, a conference exploring ways of fostering growth, development and trade between the United States and the Arab world. "As Israeli settlements expand and their populations increase, it becomes increasingly difficult to see how the two peoples will be separated into two states," Burns said. "The fact is that...

The population in settlements in the West Bank grew three times as fast as in Israel overall in 2002, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. The population of West Bank settlements grew by 5.7 percent in 2002, while the overall population of Israel and Jewish areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip grew by 1.9 percent, the bureau said. Bureau spokeswoman Yael Nathan said the West Bank growth was a jump from the 5 percent level in 2001, and was concentrated in settlements dominated by ultra-Orthodox Jews. The settlements, which are fiercely opposed by the Palestinians, were expected...

After a brief lacuna in army activity, discussions between the settler leadership and the IDF gave way to the sounds of bulldozer engines igniting. Reinforcement troops from the Nachshon Unit and the Armored Corps arrived with 5kg hammers to aid in the dismantling of Mitzpe Yitzhar, adjacent to settlement of Yitzhar, south of Nablus on theWest Bank. Only ten people lived in the illegal outpost, but over 1,000 settlers arrived Thursday to resist its removal. Despite MKs Uri Ariel, Yuri Stern, and Samaria Regional Council head Bentzi Lieberman asking the protestors not to respond violently, scuffles between settlers and soldiers...

We will be moving to Los Angeles in the next 1 to 1 1/2 years. Originally from the Midwest, now living in New Zealand for 2 years. Looking for good communities in West LA. My job will involve driving between multiple locations in LA - downtown, N Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Torrance. I want to keep driving time reasonable. Our kids will probably be in private schools, but we want a community with good public schools as a backup. Ages primary school, middle school and high school. Also want to be reasonably close to the ocean as it is cooler...

If you could live and work from anywhere in the U.S, where would that be? Take into consideration lifestyle, schools, recreation, weather, cost and quality of life, etc.